17th June 2020 is the 17th death anniversary of Comrade K.Adinarayana, veteran leader of the P and T Trade Union Movement. His date of Birth is 10th June 1928 and date of death 17-06-2003, both in the same week and month.

There have been many illustrious leaders of the Posts and Telegraphs Trade Union Movement in the past and present and will be some more in the future. But it is difficult to find another comrade like K. Adinarayana, who had come from the lowest strata and through sincerity, dedication and hard-work had reached the highest leadership both in the P and T and the of Central Government Employees’ movement.

His life has been a saga of struggle and sacrifice. Com.Adi, as he is affectionately called, was involved in mass movements from a very young age which resulted in his discontinuing formal education itself. He was jailed for three and half years during 1950-53 for participation in the great Telangana movement. He joined P and T Department in 1954 as ED. He retired in June 1986 as LSG clerk. From day one of joining the P and T he was in the thick of the movement. He was elected as the General Secretary of Postmen and Class IV Union in 1968 and continued till 1997. He was elected as Secretary General, NFPE in 1992 and vacated the position in 2001 due to ill health.

I had been fortunate to have the opportunity of working together with Com. Adi in the movement for many years, especially after I joined CHQ of All India Telecom Employees Union Class III New Delhi as its President in 1991 and later as its General Secretary from 1994. On all matters of importance I used to consult him and seek his advice. He was suffering from many ailments, but still used to be very active. His residence in the V.P.House was a centre for union leaders to go and discuss issues with him.

He was staying at his ancestral home in Hyderabad after leaving New Delhi. When the sad news of his death reached, along with Coms. C.C.Pillai, then SG NFPE, K.K.N.Kutty, Convener of Confederation and Des Raj Sharma, GS Postmen and Group D Employees, I also went to pay last respects to the departed leader. The body was taken for funeral after we reached there. Hundreds of CG employees, postal workers and others were there. We placed wreaths and paid our homage.

Homage to Com. Adi on his 92nd birth anniversary and 17th death anniversary, whose life was completely dedicated to the cause of the working class.
Red Salute to Com. K.Adinarayana !

With regard to the submission of BSNL MRS, clear instructions have to be issued at the all India level. Otherwise the pensioners are having a lot of difficulties. The dates also for option has to be extended. Online facility also should be allowed.

Notice has been issued for holding an Extraordinary General Meeting of members of BSNL at New Delhi on 15.06.2020. This meeting is being held to accord power to the Board of Directors:-

(a) To monetise/ sell/transfer/dispose off identified land/ buildings. The sale proceeds will be utilised for the revival / restructuring of the Company including repayment of loans and for meeting Capital and Operational expenditures.

(b) To accord power to the Board of Directors to issue Government Guaranteed Bonds aggregating up to Rs.8,500 crores. (Courtesy: bsnleu website)

P and T Trade Union Movement in India during II World War and thereafter (1939 – 1954) ( by B.N.Ghosh ) CHAPTER – 4

GRIM DAYS

The general condition in Bengal and Assam was one of restlessness and dismay. We were having occasional siren warning of possibility of bombing and for months together complete block out going on in Calcutta City and other towns and the cost of living was daily going up.
It is worth noticing that inspite of all these difficulties and uncertain political situation in the country and acute anti-British feelings, a progressive force of working class and middle class intelligentsia was rapidly growing against fascist war which indirectly helped the war efforts of the Government of India.

Inspite of the vow taken by me, I was not spared and had to be at the helm of Postal and RMS Union of Bengal and Assam. On the 24th day of my arrival at Calcutta, I had to address in Minerva Hall a largely attended union meeting where in the presence of Mr. Krishna Prasad, PMG Bengal and Assam I called him a “Coward Krishna Prasad” who had not the courage of visiting Assam though he was Post Master General of Assam and had asked the audience to give farewell to the P and T Welfare Officer of Bengal and Assam who was present at the meeting and who too had not gone to Assam to look after the welfare of P and T workers there, who were working in an area exposed to danger.

The city of Calcutta was heavily bombed during X’mas of 1942, and thereafter the transfer of non-essential P and T Offices from Calcutta was ordered. The Dead Latter Office which was catering to the needs of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam, was, as a result, shifted to Patna. Attached as I was then to D.L.O., Calcutta I left for Patna on 9-2-43 and ceased to be the General Secretary of All India Postal and RMS Union Bengal and Assam Provincial Branch. Both Mr. Schoobert and Mr. Krishna Prasad had requested me not to leave Calcutta at that critical time. I agreed, but circumstances, which are too nasty to be disclosed here, compelled me to change my opinion and I proceeded to Patna where I had to be up to 3rd September, 1943.
The year 1943 was a distressful one for India. There was scarcity of food stuff in whole of East India, and general prices of cereals and grain had gone up beyond limit. The pecuniary hardships of the fixed paid wage earners were ever on the increase. By the middle of 1943 the average cost of living index of the working class on all India basis had gone up to 280 taking 1939 index as 100. The maximum hardships were experienced in Assam, Bengal and Bihar. During the second week of February, rice was selling at Rs.8/- per maund at (Chitkora hat) Patna, but by the middle of March prices shot upto Rs. 30/- per maund.

The following table will show the rice position in India in September, 1943:-
Prices per maund
Assam Rs. 60/- (if available)
Calcutta Rs. 50/-
Purnea Rs. 32/-
Patna Rs. 30/-
Banaras Rs. 16/-
Nagpur Rs. 10/-
Karachi Rs. 8/-
Larkana (Sindh) Rs. 6/-

The cost of living index of the working class was as follows (Taking 1939 figure as 100).
Assam Incalculable
Calcutta 545
Jamalpur 415
Jamshedpur 380
Madras 196
Bombay 233
Ahmedabad 277

From the beginning of 1943 the Government had ordered purchase of entire foodstuff in Bengal and Assam and later on in Bihar. This shortage was for feeding those who were in the army and others in war services. At the end of 1945 one crore of men were found employed in war service. The army-men under South East Asia Command were located in different parts of Calcutta and others stationed in Bengal and Assam. An American soldier was found in Calcutta paying Rs. /- for polishing a pair of shoes.

In addition to this, Great Britain had been purchasing war materials in India on credit for which Government of India was paying through currency notes against which there was no gold reserve and the circulation of notes was rapidly increasing and that is why India Government had, at the end of 1945, one thousand five hundred crores worth notes circulation as against 228 crores at the beginning of war. All these factors created higher inflation of the market causing untold miseries and hardships to the people in general and P and T workers in particular.
According to the report of Woodhead Committee, thirty five lakh of people died of starvation in Bengal due to the Government of India made famine. The middle class people and the working-class who could survive were half clad and half-starved and through constant struggle against poverty, lost their longevity and became permanently diseased. There is no denying the fact that the P and T workers in those days with their family members could hardly manage to have two square meals a day. As the intensity of the war was increasing, hardships of the P and T workers were also on the increase. The historic struggle of the P and T workers in India and in Bengal, Assam and Bihar in particular, was nothing but a last attempt on the part of the drowning man to survive. (To be continued).

Shiva Gopal Mishra
Secretary

Ph: 23382286
National Council (Staff Side)
Joint Consultative Machinery
for Central Government Employees
13-C, Ferozshah Road, New Delhi – 110001
E-Mail: nc.jcm.np@gmail.com
No.NC-JCM-2020/Health Dated : May 20, 2020

The Secretary,
Government of India,
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare,
Nirman Bhawan,
New Delhi. llOOll

Dear Sir,

Sub: Health care facilities for the Central Government Employees and pensioners problems and difficulties During lockdown period – redressal regarding.

It has been brought to our notice by various Federations/organizations of Central Government employees and Pensioners that they face serious problems in accessing the healthcare-related facilities during the lockdown period throughout the country. As you are aware that since 24th March 2020, the whole country has been placed under lockdown to combat the spread of the pandemic COVID. I9. The employees and especially the pensioners are not allowed to stir out of their homes. In the case of employees, they are allowed to go only to the places where they are assigned specific jobs. This apart, the CGHS dispensaries themselves had been functioning with little staff and virtually they were open for namesake only. Neither the medicines were available nor the doctor. In the case of those employees, who are entitled for the benefit of CCS(MA) rules, the situation was much more precarious in as much as no private clinic was allowed to be open and the AMAs were not allowed the private practice. The Government hospitals in most of the cases had been declared as exclusive COVID 19 hospitals where other treatments are declared impermissible.

Initially everybody thought that the situation would be a passing phase and would improve once the pandemic spread is arrested. However, despite the lockdown and other measures, the spread of the disease had been on increase in many parts of the country, with the result the lockdown had to be extended to the fourth phase. In the situation in which we are placed, it is difficult to bring about normalcy in the near future. Perhaps till the anti-virus vaccine is developed or medicine to cure the disease is invented, the world will have to live with certain restrictions to contain the deadly nature of the disease. In the circumstances, we are afraid that the Government will have to think in terms of alternative methods of providing the health care facilities for the employees and pensioners keeping the present rules and regulations under suspension.

We, therefore, make the following suggestions to have hassle-free alternate arrangements till normalcy is restored or travel restrictions are eased.
When inpatient treatment becomes necessary:-

(i) CGHS beneficiaries(including pensioners): may be allowed to undergo treatment any private hospital near their residence. The cost of treatment will be reimbursed by the concerned department in the case of employees and CGHS in the case of pensioners The Govt. may direct all hospitals to provide treatment to all CGHEs and CG pensioners and they might be told that the rates stipulated by AIIMS Delhi must be the basis of billing. The hospitals may be asked to submit the bills to the concerned department/ Add!. Director, CGHS as the case may be for payment.
(ii) The treatment has to be based on the production of the CG HS card.
Non-CGHS patients:
(i) They may also avail the same facility as the CGHS beneficiaries. i.e.in any hospitals near their residence. Their admission will be based on the basis of a certificate of identity issued by the department in which he/she is employed.
Out-patient treatment
(i) Outpatient treatment for employees may be provided by the private hospitals on the basis of a predetermined rate of consultation.
(ii) The employees will submit the bills and get the cost reimbursed
Pensioners (outpatient treatment)
(i) In the case of pensioners who require outpatient treatment, they may be permitted to avail of either the CGHS facilities, if it is nearby their residence or in any private hospitals, which is near to their residence. Those who avail the private hospital facilities may submit their bills to the additional director pension for reimbursement.
The private hospitals tlu·oughout the country may be asked to provide the O.P. Treatment to CG employees and pensioners on the basis of predetermined consultation fees and stipulated charges for pathological tests.
We request you to kindly consider these suggestions and issue the necessary orders.

Yours faithfully,
sd/-
(Shiva Gopal Mishra)
Secretary

It will be 10 years on this 19th May, after Com.Moni Bose, veteran leader of telecom and P and T workers passed away. His life was full of struggles for the sake of workers and for the upliftment of the society. Though appointed in the Post and Telegraph Department as a clerk in the DET office Calcutta on 25th August 1945, he was terminated from service in connection with the 1949 strike of P and T workers. He was never reinstated. But he continued to work for the advancement of the workers and their organisation. Com. Moni is the younger brother of Com.K.G.Bose, the most loved leader of the Central and P and T workers

He has served in many capacities in unions affiliated to NFPTE in W.Bengal, including as Circle Secretary. He was elected as General Secretary of the All India Telecom Employees Union Class III in the 1991 Bhopal All India Conference defeating Com.O.P.Gupta, who was its General Secretary for long 37 years and who gradually shifted to the revisionist line supporting the government anti-worker policies. I was elected as President. We had a long time co-ordination and it was strengthened after Bhopal AIC. He was elected as President in the next AIC at Thiruvananthapuram in 1994. He led the struggle for the correct policies in the union. When BSNL Employees Union was formed in 2001, he was elected as one of the Patrons. Later he was appointed as a Member of the W.Bengal State govt employees’ Pay Commission. Co. Moni was a guide and teacher to the workers.

He passed away on 19th May 2010.

Red Salute to Com. Moni Bose!

During its first term, the Modi led BJP government fast tracked the process of dismantling the labour laws that provided some protection to the workers, though to a very small section of them. It embarked upon codification of the 44 central labour laws into 4 codes. When this met with stiff resistance from all central trade unions with massive countrywide strikes, it was the BJP led state governments that carried the baton to amend labour laws in their respective states, Rajasthan taking the lead. BJP government at the centre directed all state governments to follow suit.

After returning to power with increased mandate, labour law amendment was again taken up by the BJP government led by Modi as a priority. All the labour code bills were introduced in Parliament. But, despite its majority in Lok Sabha, BJP government could pass only the Code on Wages. Even as it wanted to push through the others – the Code on Occupational Health and Safety and Working Conditions, the Code on Industrial Relations and the Code on Social Security – it was compelled to refer them to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour. Before it could get them enacted, the Corona pandemic struck.

The lockdown imposed to contain the pandemic brought the entire economy, which was already sliding, to a halt. It wreaked havoc with the lives and livelihoods of the workers, particularly the migrant workers and the unorganised sector workers. This was seen, by the distorted minds of the ruling classes and their pen pushers, as an opportunity to crush workers’ rights, shove them into slavery and protect their own profits. Again the lead was taken by the BJP ruled state governments, with the silent approval and blessing of Prime Minister Modi and his government. One by one BJP led state governments took up the process of nullifying all labour laws; state governments led by the Congress or other regional parties also followed.

The BJP led Uttar Pradesh government has promulgated an ordinance nullifying almost all labour laws in the state for a period of three years. All establishments in the state are now exempted from all the 38 labour laws in vogue, except four.

The chief minister of BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh announced that his government was going to follow his counterpart in Uttar Pradesh to annul labour laws for 1000 days and liberate the employers. New establishments in the state will be exempt from their obligation under the Factories Act, Madhya Pradesh Industrial Relations Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Contract Labour Act etc through appropriate amendments by executive order or ordinance. They have been assured that there will be no labour department’s intervention in the establishment during this period; no inspections; only self certification. They can hire and fire workers as per their choice. Nobody can prevent them if they want to fire existing workers and hire new workers at lower wages. Trade unions will not be allowed to raise workers’ issues or bargain with the management. Employers are even exempted from payment of Rs 80 per worker to the Madhya Pradesh Labour Welfare Board.

Not to be left behind, the BJP state government in Gujarat reportedly decided to initiate similar measures to give freedom to the employers from the imaginary clutches of labour laws for a period of 1200 days, i.e. more than three years.

The state cabinet in Assam, again ruled by BJP, decided to implement Fixed Term Employment and exempt large number of employers from following labour laws like the Factories Act and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act. It has decided to increase the threshold number of workers for applicability of the Factories Act from 20 to 40 in the case of factories not using power and from 10 to 20 in the case of those using power. This will throw large number of workers in the manufacturing units out of legal protection under the Act related to occupational safety, health and welfare.

As it is, most of the factories in our country do not have proper ventilation facilities, toilets, crèches, potable drinking water etc. Thousands of workers die every year of industrial accidents due to the neglect of the employers, the latest being the accident in LG Polymers in Visakhapatnam in which 12 people in the nearby village died and hundreds became seriously ill. Besides, when the economy is being opened up even as the fight against the corona virus needs to be continued, it is essential to ensure safe workplaces with facilities for washing hands, sanitisation and physical distancing etc. Instead of doing this, the BJP led governments are putting workers’ safety and lives to greater risk.

Similarly, the threshold for the applicability of Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 in Assam will be raised from the present 20 to 50. Contractors can limit the number of their workers to 49 and exploit them with unlimited freedom.

The BJP government in Karnataka is also on the same path. It is reportedly considering relaxing labour laws related to minimum wages, working hours and also others. It has suddenly transferred the Principal Secretary of its Labour Department, who was reportedly considered a thorn in its attempts.

In addition, several state governments – not only BJP led ones as in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Assam but also Congress led governments in Punjab and Rajasthan as well as the BJD led Odisha government have increased daily working hours from 8 to 12 and from 48 to 72 in a week with 12 hour shifts. The BJP led governments in Karnataka and Tripura too are joining the bandwagon. Tripura government has also decided to increase the threshold number of workers in establishments to 300 for the employers to hire and fire as per their wishes.

On 9th May the Congress government in Punjab withdrew its own notification issued on 1st May increasing DA to industrial workers, which would have increased the minimum wages of workers by over Rs 350 from 1st March.

It is highly significant that in this mad rush to amend labour laws to satisfy the employers, it was only the LDF government in Kerala, where the state labour minister has categorically asserted that the state was not going to amend the labour laws in favour of the employers.

It is to be noted that all these are in total violation of the ILO conventions to which India is a signatory. The first convention that ILO, which India signed stipulates 8 hours of work in a day and 48 hours of work in a week. India is also a signatory to the Tripartite Consultation International Labour Standards Convention, 1976, which requires it to consult stakeholders – employers and workers’ bodies – before taking any policy decision. But the state governments did not engage with trade unions, thus violating the Tripartite Consultation Convention C144. This is not the first time that the BJP government led by Modi is ignoring tripartism. CITU had to raise this with the ILO, during the first tenure of the Modi government.

That the government is acting as per the demands, rather dictates of the employers is very clear. Representatives of 12 employers’ associations and industries including Council of Indian Employers, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry have demanded government of India to suspend labour laws for the next two to three years and to increase working hours to 12 per day. The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry demanded that trade unions be prohibited for at least one year. They complained that minimum wages were too high and bringing them down was nearly impossible; and they reiterated their long time demand for freedom to hire and fire.

These demands and the response of the governments are nothing short of cruel. The corona pandemic has further increased the distress of the working class whose situation was already worsening due to the economic crisis. The workers are now facing unprecedented deprivations. ILO has estimated that half the workers globally would lose their jobs; in India around 40 crores workers are estimated to be pushed into poverty. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has reported that 120 million Indian have lost their jobs. Unemployment rate has risen to around 27%. Crores of migrant and other workers who have lost their jobs suddenly find themselves homeless and hungry; lakhs of migrant workers have been walking hundreds of kilometres to their homes, hundreds succumbed to exhaustion and accidents on their way.

It is in such conditions that the employers and the governments serving them are trying to push workers into conditions of slavery. The employers don’t want to pay them wages; but they also won’t allow them to go back to their native places either. They want the workers to be available, homeless, starving but ready to work with low wages and without any legal protection whenever the establishments are open. But, that is what capitalism is. In their rush for profits, capitalists trample underfoot workers, human beings, nature, anybody and anything; no feelings of justice, humanity or morality here.

This atrocious annulment of labour laws, meant to push workers into slavery is being done ostensibly in the name of attracting investment and supported by some in the name of weaning foreign firms from China. In the context of the corona pandemic, ‘China has become unpopular and many companies would exit from China. India should take this as a big opportunity, attract these firms and replace China as the ‘factory of the world’ – so goes the argument.

Commending the UP, MP and Gujarat government’s initiatives as ‘one of the boldest and bravest initiatives since reforms in 1991’, Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Ayog recommended further reforms in other sectors as well. ‘It’s now or never; states are driving bold reforms; we will never get this opportunity; seize it’, he egged on the corporates.

However, this argument that foreign companies would relocate themselves from China to India is totally misplaced. Even Indian firms are not investing in the country, particularly during the last few years. The major reason is the deteriorating purchasing power of the people and the inability to sell the manufactured products. Further suppressing demand through these measures will only worsen the disease.

In addition there is no empirical evidence that prohibiting labour laws or reducing wages would lead to economic growth. In Rajasthan, while the labour law amendments of the former BJP government were hailed by the corporates, what followed was fall in wages, increase in unemployment and decline in the state GDP. The Economic Survey of 2018-19 stressed that a high minimum wage does not impact employment generation. Besides, it is not only the trade unions, even eminent legal experts point out that ‘to say our labour laws are strictly implemented is a myth and thus to infer that their implementation is the primary cause for losses in productivity would be very erroneous’.

Within the serious constraints of the lockdown the working class in the country has made it clear they were not going to take these attacks lying down. In almost all the states wherever these changes were being carried out or being considered, in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar etc protests were held in front of the labour commissioners’ officers, work places, or houses etc, by CITU independently or jointly along with other trade unions. On 14th May the central trade unions in the joint trade union platform discussed on line about the future course of action to resist these measures. The secretariat meeting of CITU scheduled to be held on line on 15th May will finalise its campaign and struggle programmes on the basis of the call of its 16th conference ‘to defy and resist’ anti worker policies of the government.

These attacks on the hard won rights of the working class, its display of authoritarianism are part of the attacks on the basic democratic and human rights of the toiling people by the desperate capital in crisis. These must be defeated and reversed through united struggles, not only of the working class but by the entire toiling masses.